What’s the OB Bus Route Today?

Friday, February 10, 2012 @ 7:00 AM. Went to get on the “35 bus” at the “temporary” bus stop on Orchard and Sunset Cliffs Blvd. only to find out that this temporary stop is temporarily shut down. How do I know this? Because there is a cute little “sleeve” covering the bus stop sign with an arrow running through it, signifying “no bus service.”

Was I given any notice about this? Were my three foreign language students that take this bus given any notice of the change? Hell no! Did they ride the 35 and 923 bus yesterday? Yes! Did they ride the bus the day before? Yes. Then why wasn’t there some indication that the route would be changed? Who is running the Metropolitan Bus Service? Idiots? It’s not like the bus riders are driving a car and can drive to the next bus stop. They had no idea where the next working bus stop would be.

In going to pick them up to take them to the Trolley Station, I discovered that all of the CABLE STREET pick-up spots were closed. I back-tracked to Sunset Cliffs, and found that the first (and last) stop of the 35 bus would be at Sunset Cliffs and Del Mar……for the next two weeks. I cannot understand why bus riders were not notified of this change. (And the only reason I know it is for two weeks (?) is because there was a bus supervisor standing in the middle of the street and I asked him what was going on.)

As I drove my students down Sunset Cliffs towards West Point Loma Ave., I was stopped by the 923 bus that was taking on passengers in front of the Chase Bank. Yesterday they took passengers on the bus in front of the school.

Public transportation in Ocean Beach is, at best, bad. It is now worse. It is understandable that the work on Sunset Cliffs is behind schedule. (Must be because of all the rainy weather we have had that delayed construction.) Every time I read that “ridership is down” it makes me want to gag. Ridership will be down in Ocean Beach – because no one can find a bus.

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I would like to think this situation is unique, but it is not. Bus service is horrendous in much of San Diego, not just OB. Several times they re-routed the 11 bus but never put a sign up to tell anyone about it at the 35th & Adams stop. When I worked in Sorrento Mesa the bus that ran up and down Mira Mesa Blvd only ran during the morning rush and afternoon rush. There was absolutely no service during the day so if you had a dental appointment or something that day you would need to take the entire day off from work. The height of stupidity is the lack of bus service to the Sorrento Valley Coaster Station. During rush hour they have shuttles you can take from the office building area in Sorrento Valley to and from the station. If you don’t work a traditional schedule you are screwed. You get off at the station with no way to get around other than hoofing it or to call a cab that will charge an arm and a leg to get you to work. Work late and there is no way to the station and all the bus service stops. You are not alone in OB, you are not alone.

As a matter of fact, I just spent 25 minutes talking to someone in the Consumer Relation Department of SDMTS. She didn’t have the answers; her boss will call me back when she gets back from lunch. Hope she didn’t take a bus to her destination!

I’ve ranted without end about the pathetic state of transit throughout San Diego…with Christina’s car dying on us last week I took a look again at possibly combining mass transit with a bicycle as a way to consider becoming a one-car family. Sadly, with her working in Mission Valley, Kenzi’s school schedule not allowing for four hours of commuting a day, and my work requiring me to be all over town at various times, it’s just not feasible unless one of us quits working and the other gets the car. I feel blessed that it only took a $200 Visa charge at Pep Boys for parts to get my mom’s old Mazda running and on loan until we can come up with the $800 or so to get the sedan back…

Even in the areas with service the schedules don’t make much sense. They designated the 10 and express bus but from what I can see the only thing express about it is that it zips right through North Park only stopping twice at inconvenient locations but stops every few blocks or so through Mission Hills and Hillcrest. Eastbound it stops only once at the top of the hill at Texas Street. No rhyme or reason to that one as it’s not even a cross street. You can either climb a hill at Georgia St. and catch it in Hillcrest or walk up a hill to Texas Street. There is nothing in-between. Westbound it stops at Louisiana St. which is at least a block closer towards Hillcrest. Strangely there is a stop Eastbound right across from the Westbound stop but it does not stop there. They insist you must walk to the top of the hill and wait for that extremely long traffic light before you can cross. The next stop both East and Westbound is at 30th St which makes sense since bus routes do cross paths there. Here is where it does not make sense again. The corridor of revitalization in North Park is between 30th and the 805. Better get off at 30th and hoof it because the 10 does not stop again until it’s in City Heights. More nonsense from MTS, this ridiculous plan for an express but that I understand will cut minutes, yes minutes off the current rout from UCSD to downtown. They are going to spend millions of dollars to put an express bus lane down Park Blvd, that nobody living or operating a business here wants, from El Cajon Blvd to University Ave. The money would be better spent improving on the service they already have. I do have one question. Who is this organization they have plastered on their windows who awarded them outstanding service and how low were the standards? Nobody utilizing public transit in San Diego finds the service outstanding.

In general, public transportation in San Diego is sub par. I haven’t used SD’s public transportation in quite a while.

I cannot understand why the trolley doesn’t go to the beach or Sea World (two of the biggest tourist attractions in San Diego)… or the airport (taking a bus transfer with a family and luggage is not a good solution) and 5/805 merge business area for that matter. Maybe if the trolley went to Sea World, they wouldn’t have to continue to build massive parking lots on bay front, park potential land… or OB residents wouldn’t get stopped on Sea World drive stop lights.

I think it is a dangerous setup to have minivan’s full of families making left turns out of Sea World in front of cars travelling at 55 mph. Freeway on ramps/exits from 8 to the 5 would make things easier and safer for Mission Beach, Ocean Beach, and Pt. Loma traffic.

Am I the only person that feels this way?

If you want to build a transportation infrastructure, you should start with the core locations and routes. Ineptitude and lack of accountability seems to be the status quo.

John- I am transit dependent, so I know of what you speak. I came to SD in 1978. The transit was ok (pre-trolley & express routes) but that all changed literally overnight with the draconian cuts of Prop 13 (It wasn’t only schools affected. It was a blood bath for libraries and our transit system.) It took my husband close to 3 1/2 hours each way when he traveled from North Park to his work at UCSD. We didn’t have a car at the time.
Interestingly enough, it was in the Reagan years that money was allocated for mass transit through revenues from the gas tax. In the ensuing years I have seen improvements, which unfortunately always came last to the enormous ridership in my transit dependent community of City Heights. And I have also seen the incremental erosion of service while the fares have increased. (Remember when the linchpin of the system- transfers- were free???)
But if you think things are bad now, please consider the potential impacts of the GOP’s execrable Transportation Funding Bill. It will essentially eviscerate mass transit funding. http://tiny.cc/0empk Just one more way that the 1% can tell the 99% that they don’t give a crap about us.

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